Herskowitz: Maybe Garner always has the right touch on April 20

MICKEY HERSKOWITZ, Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, April 21, 2005

The anniversary was one few would remember, including the honoree. But Adam Everett and Craig Biggio tagged home runs on consecutive pitches Wednesday night to launch a 6-1 win for the Astros over Milwaukee, and what better way could they have picked to pay tribute to Phil Garner?

On this date 20 years ago, Garner crushed a grand slam in the Astrodome for the 100th homer of his spray-hitting career, which lasted 18 seasons. He would slug just nine more before leaving labor for the executive ranks.

"Oh, is that what it was?" Garner said in the Houston clubhouse. He knew his name had appeared as a multiple choice on the message board high above center field. He just didn't know that his 100th homer was the answer to the trivia question.

Otherwise, the Astros had all the answers on this balmy night at Minute Maid Park over a Milwaukee team that lost its sixth game in a row.

More Milwaukee misery

This was an exercise in misery for the Brewers, who played the patsy as
Roy Oswalt
went the distance for his third win, Biggio drove in his 1,000th run with his first-pitch homer and the Astros stole four bases.

Biggio had two of them, raising his career total to 399, including his 101st theft of third base when he bowled over Jeff Cirillo in the Astros' game-clinching, three-run burst in the seventh inning.

The Astros used all of the tricks in their bag, including germ warfare. Milwaukee's ace, Ben Sheets, was pitching despite a touch of flu, and his antibiotics had clearly not kicked in when he faced the first two batters.

"Yeah, we saw it when he was warming up," said Garner. "His velocity wasn't there, and I told Adam Everett he could go up there and try to bunt and run him a little bit, and he didn't pay any attention to that."

A grin crawled across Phil's face and he added, "He didn't want to get on first and have to steal a base. He figured he would just trot. I actually told him before the game, if he was feeling hitterish to go ahead and swing the bat.

"He must have been feeling hitterish."

Everett added two singles to his first homer of the season, a welcome show of muscle for a fellow who began the game with a skittish .170 average.

Now this is the essence of managing, of inside baseball and the wheels of strategic thinking.

Garner had almost as much praise for Sheets as he did for the masterful Oswalt.

"You could see he wasn't feeling well," he said of the husky righthander, "but with a lot of the good ones you better get them early. If they get into their groove, it's hard to get rid of them. And he shut us down after that, until Mike Lamb hit the triple and we broke it loose."

An inning with everything

Lamb's line drive to left center was the key blow of a freakish seventh inning, when the Brewers gave up three runs, two hits, two walks, two stolen bases and two errors.

You concluded that Sheets was running on fumes by then because he committed one of the bobbles, bouncing a throw to first base in the dirt, with Oswalt running down the line.

For a strapping guy with uncanny control to the plate, Big Ben sometimes has a problem getting the ball to his first baseman. He was charged with two throwing errors in a
3-0 loss to St. Louis in his last start.

Held to just four hits by the quick-working Oswalt, who shows all the emotion of a guy waiting at a bus stop, the Brewers had nothing going their way.

In the ninth, Junior Spivey, who also was battling the flu, was called out by plate umpire John Hirschbeck when a ball bounced near or off his foot before he was tagged out by catcher Raul Chavez. The replay wasn't conclusive, but Spivey had such strong feelings about the play that he was ejected from the game.

After a long consultation among Hirschbeck, first base umpire Wally Bell, Spivey and manager Ned Yost, the Brewers left Brady Clark at second, their first baserunner since the fifth inning.

The wrangling continued in the Brewers' dugout when Spivey refused to leave, and then Garner joined the debate.

"I thought maybe there had been interference (by Spivey)," he said.

Even with a five-run lead and Oswalt mowing them down, the Astros could not contain their greed. When Spivey stayed put at home plate, Chavez wrapped him up with both arms, as if to toss him out of the way. But it didn't come to that.

"It wasn't a foul ball," said Garner. "At least, I didn't see it hit him and John called it fair. Chavez did grab him, but ... "

He let the sentence dangle, as the Brewers had, all night.

A rare breather

So for the second straight game, the Astros did not win or lose by a run and managed to score five or better.

All of this action took place when Oswalt was at his dominating best.

"He was throwing strikes," said the manager. "He threw his curveball for strikes and his changeup and sliders. That makes them swing the bat, and that leads to quick outs."

Which, he didn't need to add, is the game every manager sees in his dreams.